The Clinton body count (formerly Clinton body bags[2]) is a conspiracy theory originally perpetrated by Larry Nichols and Pat Matrisciana who made the 1990 direct-to-video Bill and Hillary Clinton's Circle of Power,[3][4] followed by the 1994 direct-to-video The Clinton Chronicles.[5][2][6] The 1994 video was promoted and sold by Jerry Falwell.[6] Conspiracy-promoter Rob Smith has alleged without substantiation on Conservapedia that Danny Casolaro (1947–1991) initiated the conspiracy in this largely lost manuscript The Octopus.[7][8] The conspiracy alleges that Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for the deaths of around 140 people.

The conspiracy theory is based on finding various vaguely suspicious but unconnected deaths, and then bullshitting a great deal to make it seem like the Clintons were somehow responsible. Generally the Clintons are portrayed as leaders of a deep state group, or as pawns of the military-industrial complex. Any holes in the theory are explained away as a "coverup". The sub-conspiracies contained within this unified conspiracy theory include:

The basic premise is that Bill and Hillary Clinton have quietly bumped off dozens of people in order to hide their criminal conspiracy/ties to the NWO/ties to the global Satanic pedophile consortium. This conspiracy is old. It seems to have begun in 1993 with a list compiled by Linda Thompson, a pro-gun hack, which was titled "The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death?"[2][9] Thompson admitted that she had no evidence whatsoever that the Clintons were guilty of any wrongdoing, but this didn't stop GOP Representative William Dannemeyer from making his own list and spreading it around.[2] The conspiracy theory reemerged during the 2008 election cycle.

The "Clinton body count" is laughably stupid no matter how one looks at it. To believe the claims, one must accept that the Clintons are hyper-competent criminal masterminds who were able to arrange dozens of murders and cover them up perfectly. One must accept that Bill Clinton was able to suppress any evidence, leaks, or whistleblowers despite having proven that he was unable to lie effectively about a simple blowjob.

Nonetheless, the conspiracy reared its ugly head and hit its peak during the absolute shitshow that was the 2016 U.S. presidential election, no doubt to the glee of the conspiracy-mindedDonald Trump. This time, claims centered around the murder of Democratic Party campaigner Seth Rich in an apparent robbery gone bad. The story went national because it happened shortly after WikiLeaks dumped a large number of embarrassing emails from the Democratic National Committee, sparking rumors that Seth Rich had been assassinated in retaliation for his presumed involvement.[10] The conspiracy theory was successfully used by right-wing pundits and fake news sources to contribute to an atmosphere of distrust towards Hillary Clinton, and this almost certainly contributed to her election defeat.[11]

A central "starting point" for the conspiracy is the allegation that Vince Foster's suicide was murder and a coverup, often by sarcastically alleging he "committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the back of the head". This is a complete and total fabrication. The gun was fired two times, once when he shot himself in the mouth (specifically the posterior oropharynx) and once when police officers tested the ballistics of the gun in a crime lab.[12] The first appearance of these claims is not clear, but there's no legitimate source for them.

Seth Rich was a campaign worker for the Democratic Party who was sadly murdered in a robbery gone wrong. Or is that just what they want you to think? After his murder, conspiracy theorists and right-wing pundits started propagating the baseless idea that Seth Rich was responsible for sharing internal Democratic Party documents with Wikileaks.[13] There is zero evidence to back up the claim, and they obviously started "asking questions" just to manufacture a supposed motive for the Clintons to bump Rich off.

Peddlers of the conspiracy include Sean Hannity, who persisted even after Fox News claimed to have pulled the story, and Julian Assange, who started using the conspiracy theory was a way to publicly distract from his organization's ties to Russia.[14] The Russian Embassy in London also got in on the action by tweeting a picture of Seth Rich and Hillary Clinton in the background, with text saying, "Who Killed Seth Rich?"[15]

Conspiracists like to say that Rich's murder was most likely a hit because his valuables were still on the scene. However, it's not unusual for would-be robbers to flee the scene after shooting someone for fear of being caught, and Rich was still conscious and breathing when authorities found him, rendering theories of a professional hit very unlikely.[16]

The conspiracy theory has caused anguish among Rich's family, and his parents wrote that "With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us."[17]

When billionaire scumbag Jeffrey Epstein was indicted in July 2019 for raping underage girls at his private island and possibly selling them out to his rich asshole friends, both the media and the public immediately focused on the fact that Epstein had been friends with both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.[18]Surely that had no negative impact on political tensions in the United States. Epstein had also previously received a sweetheart plea deal from former Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta (then a federal prosecutor in Florida), the scandal from which later led to Acosta's resignation.[19] Bill Clinton, meanwhile, was revealed by flight logs to have ridden on Epstein's private plane, allegedly called the "Lolita Express."[20]

When Epstein was found dead in his cell by apparent suicide, various pundits and politicians noted that it was suspicious that a man who could have indicted other rich assholes in a pedophilia ring was suddenly silenced.[21] Online, the phrase "Epstein didn’t kill himself" became a meme.[22] Naturally, a dead guy with a salacious story around him was perfect fuel for the internet's conspiracy theorists, and they started acting as if Epstein had been found with Bill Clinton's fingerprints on his constricted throat, and with Bill Clinton's photo ID clutched in his dead hand.

In reality, his suicide seems to be a result of basic negligence. Epstein, who had previously tried to hang himself, was taken off suicide watch prematurely and left alone in his cell with no cellmate and no supervision.[23] It's apparent that the lower Manhattan federal prison in which Epstein was incarcerated had utterly failed to follow its own protocols.[24] Reports suggest that Epstein was having difficulties adjusting to prison life, as you might expect from a dickwad billionaire, and he was also among the demographic of inmates who are most likely to commit suicide (recently incarcerated prisoners awaiting trial).[25]

Conspiracy theories also ignore that Mr. Epstein was not the sole source of evidence that could, hypothetically, be used against those with purported motivation to kill him. His accusers are still alive and have a voice.[26] Moreover, evidence of other possible crimes (e.g., emails, phone records, financial statements, address books[27], etc.) would easily survive Mr. Epstein. Assuming that conspirators were powerful and clever enough to murder Mr. Epstein in a secure federal detention facility by himself, yet incapable of eliminating other witnesses and destroying other evidence, or too stupid to consider that killing Mr. Epstein might not be enough to cover their tracks, is beyond credulity.

Trump naturally joined in on the hysteria by retweeting a post suggesting that Epstein was murdered by the Clintons, even including #ClintonBodyCount.[28] Of course, the honorable and trustworthy Donald Trump would never peddle baseless conspiracies.Do You Believe That?

As with most conspiracy theories, the narrative is always evolving, and new "victims" are added all the time. Most of these people had little or no fame particularly before their deaths (e.g. Foster). The lack of fame for most of these people probably fuels the conspiracy mindset into thinking that it is therefore easily covered up. Several of these alleged victims survived the purported assassination attempts.[2][30] The list:[9][38][30]